


The World In Between

by kythen



Series: At The World's End [2]
Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: End of the World, Gen, M/M, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-15
Updated: 2014-12-14
Packaged: 2018-03-01 11:19:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2771123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kythen/pseuds/kythen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He knows that there is something wrong with this world. He just doesn't know what it is.</p>
<p>Ja'far is searching.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The World In Between

Ja'far wakes up alone.

It is too early for the sun to be properly up and the patch of sky through his window is a dusty grey, backlit by the soft glow of the first rays of sunlight. Buried deep in his nest of blankets, his skin is ice-cold and his teeth chatter as he curls his body tighter into himself. Mornings in the deserts are always cold but today's chill feels especially brutal, seeping into his bedclothes and reaching deep into his bones.

He blinks away the haze of sleep, dragging himself back into consciousness, but he does not make any effort to move. Flashes of images interlaced with his sleep last night creep back into his memory and he tries to piece them back together, his mind still sleep-fogged and not being very helpful.

Last night, he dreamt that he had died in a fire. The heat had burnt him from the inside out and he had disappeared in a blaze that stretched out far into the sky. There had been something - _someone_ \- else too, but that particular detail falls into the cracks between dreaming and waking, into the recesses of memory that he cannot reach.

That must be why he feels so cold today, when his dream self had been drowning in heat and his current self is all but exposed to the cool morning air. It gets worse when he tentatively slides a leg out from under the blankets, goosebumps breaking out all the way up his calf upon exposure to the air. Ja'far shudders, but forces his other leg out. There is work to be done, cold or not.

He is reluctant to let his blankets go, them being only thing blocking out the cold, and so he bundles them around his torso as he slips out of bed and crosses the room, trailing the ends of his blanket nest after him. The ground is ice under his bare feet and he does not stay in one area for too long, making his journey to the door a brisk one. At the door, Ja'far has to make the decision of whether to surrender to the cold or to be seen as a walking bundle of blankets. He mulls over it for a fraction of a second before leaving his room, blankets and all.

After a quick trip to the bathroom, he is back in his room, blankets folded neatly on his bed and clothes in place. He takes what little belongings he has and checks the blades tucked in his sleeves, the red wires coiled around his arms, and then he leaves again. This time, he emerges in a town that is not quite awake, with sleepy vendors setting up wares at their store, greeting each other with grunts and unintelligible words.

Everything is familiar, just as it had been yesterday and Ja'far breathes a sigh of relief. Lately, there had been strange instances - _abnormalities in the world?_ \- where he would go to sleep in one place and wake up in another. Sometimes, it would happen while he was mid-step and he would suddenly find himself placing his foot onto unfamiliar ground, completely different from where he had been one step ago.

His memory is in a similar state, fragments missing from his past. He does not remember his life linearly, but rather as arbitrary bursts of recollection that surface throughout the day. He always remembers the basics: what his name is, how he looks, and that the red wires must always be wrapped around his arm and the blades tied up with them up his sleeves. Everything else he forgets at some point of time like what he does for a living and who he encountered the day before. With his memory in pieces, it makes for an aimless life but Ja'far gets by.

Today, he wanders into the bazaar, flicking cursory glances at stores which are not yet set up, his concentration on walking rather than on the half-displayed goods. He makes it to the end of the bazaar in good time and turns down into a lane in search of breakfast. He must have worked sometime recently as there are coins in a cloth pouch by his waist, which he counts out quickly in the shadow of a building. It is enough for a decent breakfast and he straightens up, his coins tucked back into his pouch, and follows his nose in search of food.

Unlike the bazaar, the food stalls are already up and running, a mix of mouth-watering smells wafting through the air. He dithers between two stalls, fruit and bread, before settling on the latter and when he falls into line, he accidentally brushes shoulders with someone.

He sees blond hair and startled amber eyes and Ja'far has a name leap onto his tongue, startling himself as he says it out loud.

"Alibaba?" Ja'far's voice raises in a question, but he knows this name, even if it did just resurface in his memory.

The boy nods furiously and his mouth works silently, his brows furrowed as he tries to pull a name of his own out of his memory. Finally, he lights up and grabs Ja'far by the shoulders, a smile bright on his face.

"Ja'far?" Alibaba says and Ja'far feels a part of his displaced memory click back into place, gathering up the tiny fragments of events and lining them up in his head. He remembers Alibaba, just as he remembers his own name and the blades that are kept against his skin. The memory of Alibaba is part of something bigger, which slips out of his grasp when he tries to grab at it, but what he does know is that something is wrong.

_There is something wrong with this world._

The breath catches in his throat.

There is something wrong with this world?

\---

"I'm looking for Aladdin." says Alibaba once they are settled down in the shade of a doorway, breakfast in hand.

Ja'far nods politely at his expectant look, even if he does not exactly know who this Aladdin character is. He is distracted, the feeling of wrongness still clinging to his skin, his eyes taking in his surroundings rather than staying fixed on Alibaba. There is something wrong with this world? Where had that thought come from?

"Um, have you," Alibaba tries again, his words hopeful, "have you seen him?"

Belatedly, Ja'far registers that Alibaba is asking him a question and he takes a moment to recall what was said before shaking his head, lips pressed tight in an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry." he says as Alibaba's shoulders slump.

"No, it's alright." Alibaba rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "I've been to a few places and nobody's seen anyone who looks like him. It's strange but I can't remember anything or anyone else other than Aladdin. And then there are these weird memory lapses... In fact, I'm surprised that I even remembered you, Ja'far."

"It just came to you suddenly, didn't it?"

Alibaba's eyes go wide. "Yeah. Was it the same for you?"

"Yes." There is a faint smile on his face, but his thoughts are swirling, catching all these new pieces of information in its midst and fixing them into place amongst the things that he knows. He thought that he was the only one with these problems, an abnormality of his own in this world. There is definitely something larger at play here, now that he knows that he is not the only one with a jigsaw memory, every other piece missing from its midst.

Alibaba looks troubled and Ja'far can see the countless questions forming in his head, all wanting to be asked first. Ja'far knows to be patient, which contrary to his mild-mannered appearance is not something that comes naturally. But he knows firsthand what the boy is going through now and so he waits, turning his attention to his forgotten breakfast.

Finally, Alibaba exhales deeply and Ja'far can almost see all his thoughts slotting into place, not quite arriving at an answer but achieving some sort of order at least. He watches as Alibaba clasps his hands together tightly before he speaks again.

"I met someone else the other day and the exact same thing happened. It was a girl. Her name was Morgiana, and I think I knew her too." Alibaba's eyebrows knit together in frustration. "Just a few days ago I remembered everything about her and now it's all slipping away from me again."

Morgiana. It is another name that he does not recognise, although he feels like he should. "Why didn't she stay with you?" Ja'far asks.

"She disappeared. Or I disappeared. I'm not sure which of us left the other but that's how we got separated."

It is ineloquently expressed but Ja'far understands him. He has crossed towns, deserts, seas even just by taking a step forward and finding that his surroundings have changed drastically. He never finds out what happens to the places that he had left or the people he had left behind, and they slip from his mind in time.

Ja'far had always thought that the problem was with him because anyone else he had talked to had no idea what he was talking about, and eventually he stopped bringing it up in conversations. Alibaba is different, and Ja'far knows that he is someone that he should not forget.

"I think we should try to stay together." Ja'far says. "As much as this world will allow it, that is."

"This world?"

_There is something wrong with this world._

Ja'far hesitates. He has nothing to back up this theory of his, which is really nothing more than a stray thought that had forced its way out of the mess in his head. But yet, he is strangely inclined to believe it and he clings to it strongly, half-fearful that he is going to forget about it. He knows that he cannot trust himself, with his faulty memory and propensity to wander. This is something that he needs to say out loud, something he needs to share with someone who matters in this drifting life of his.

"There seems to be something wrong with this world." Ja'far starts carefully, "All these problems with our memory and stepping into other places without meaning to, they seem to be caused by this world, not us."

Alibaba nods, taking his words in stride with a surprising amount of ease. "I thought about that too, after meeting Morgiana." He falters slightly at the mention of Morgiana's name, then stands and brushes the dirt off the seat of his pants. "I think Aladdin would know what to do. I just know that he has something to do with this and we've got to go find him. I've searched this entire town and haven't run into him at all so I was thinking of moving on to the next town."

"I'll go with you. I have no attachment to this town so I'm ready to leave any time."

"Alright! Then we'll leave right after we're done with breakfast." Alibaba brandishes what is left of his breakfast with gusto, which looks no different from when he had bought it.

Ja'far, on the other hand, had finished off his own breakfast while Alibaba had been talking. He stands up and stretches as he waits for Alibaba, who tears through his loaf of bread with frightening speed and seemingly without a need for oxygen.

While they had been conversing, the bazaar had started to come to life. There is a steady stream of people filling the road in between stores and the vendors have their goods out, strategically positioned to catch the eyes of passer-bys. The hum of morning conversations and bartering fills the air and Ja'far filters that out, turning his attention back to Alibaba. There had been something that he wanted to ask him about, but he had forgotten about it as they were planning their route to the next town.

"By the way, Alibaba, who's Aladdin?"

There is no response from Alibaba and when Ja'far looks back, there is no one there.

**Author's Note:**

> The tag up there says that this is SinJa but in truth you probably won't see the other half of the ship for a long while.


End file.
